Seminars/Lectures

Seminars and Lectures

The Department of Archaeology arranges a Seminar and Evening Lecture Programme during term time, where staff, students and visiting academics present on current work.

The Lunchtime Seminars take place on Tuesdays at 1pm in Room J5 in the Connolly Building (on First Floor). Evening Lectures are undertaken in conjunction with the Student Archaeology Society (ArchSoc) and are normally held at a venue on the Main Campus.

The following sections detail upcoming events in along with information on recent seminars, lectures and conferences organised by the Archaeology Department at UCC and delivered elsewhere by its staff.

You can find out more about where we are on our Location and Facilities page.Details of upcoming events are also posted on our social media pages.

All are very welcome to attend these events.

*10-12 November 2017The 2017 Bronze Age Forum is being held at University College Corkfor registration and further details visit the BAF2017 page

Lunchtime Seminars 2017–18

Our Lunchtime Seminars are held each Tuesday during Term at 1pm in Room J5 (First Floor, Connolly Building).

28 OctoberViking and Early Medieval Research GroupDr Tomas Ó Carragáin: ‘Towards an archaeology of early ecclesiastical estates: a case study of Fir Maige, Co. Cork’Michelle Higgins (MPhil): ‘Place-names and early ecclesiastical settlement in Cork’

13 January Biological Anthropology Research GroupDr Jonny Geber (IRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow): ‘Child experiences of the Great Irish Famine (1845-52): Bioarchaeological insights on the impact of institutionalization at Kilkenny Union Workhouse’Niamh Daly (PhD): '"Til death do us part": A bioarchaeological investigation of female kinship ties in Early Medieval Ireland’

22 October: Viking and Early Medieval Research GroupDr Jane Kershaw (University College London): ‘Weighted silver as a means of exchange in Scandinavian England’. Followed by a talk that evening on ‘England’s Viking Age: recent contributions from metal detecting’

19 November: Viking and Early Medieval Research GroupDr Rebecca Boyd ‘Houses and homes: a fresh look at the Vikings in Ireland’

26 November: Prehistoric Transitions Research GroupProfessor Gary Lock (University of Oxford): Living with the White Horse: the Hillforts of the Ridgeway Project’. Followed the next day by the Annual School Lecture: ’Humanising Archaeological GIS’ (6.30pm Geography lecture theatre, Wednesday 27th November).

5th February: Prehistoric Transitions Research GroupDr Marc Van der Linden (University College London): How to become a farmer? New research on the neolithicisation of the western Balkans’Preceded on Monday evening, 4th February, at 7pm by a lecture titled:‘Is it worth it? On the scientific impact of development-led archaeology in north-west Europe.’

12th February: Prehistoric Transitions Research GroupAnn Clarke (Edinburgh)‘Stone tools at transition periods: some examples from the Late Mesolithic/ Early Neolithic; Late Neolithic/ Early Bronze Age; and Late Bronze Age/ Early Iron Age of Northern Britain’

19th February: Viking and Early Medieval Research GroupDudley Martin: ‘Viking Age stick pins: a study’Daniel O’Mahony: ‘A comparative study of the Christianization of the Hiberno-Scandinavian population in Ireland during the Viking Age’.

19th March: Historic Buildings Research GroupPaul Rondelez: ‘Ironworking technology in later Medieval IrelandDerek O’Brien: ‘Trade in Medieval Cork from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries’

26th March: Biological Anthropology Research GroupsNiamh Daly: ‘Food for thought: an isotopic assessment of food practices in early medieval Ireland’Katherine Beatty: ‘Skin and bones: the face in the archaeological imagination’

29th November: Viking and Early Medieval Research GroupDr David Griffiths (University of Oxford): ‘Landscape, burial and identity around the Viking-Age Irish Sea’Preceded on the Monday evening 28 November) by a public lecture on ‘Settlement under the sand: excavation and survey in Birsay and Skaill, Orkney’

10th January: Viking and Early Medieval Research GroupDr Francis Ludlow (Harvard University) ‘Documenting a Millennium of Extreme Weather in Ireland: The Case of the Medieval Irish Annals’.

17th January: Viking and Early Medieval Research GroupCliodhna O’Leary: ‘The early medieval minor cross sculpture of Iniscealtra’Michelle Higgins: ‘Place-names and early ecclesiastical settlement in Cork’

7th February: Viking and Early Medieval Research GroupDudley Martin: ‘Viking Age stick pins: a study’Daniel O’Mahony: ‘A comparative study of the Christianization of the Hiberno-Scandinavian population in Ireland during the Viking Age’.

11th January, 2011: Viking and Early Medieval Research GroupGil Boazman: ‘Christianity and regional landscapes in early medieval Ireland’Patrick Gleeson: ‘The archaeology of early medieval Irish kingship’

18th January: Viking and Early Medieval Research GroupCliodhna O’Leary: ‘The early medieval minor cross sculpture of Iniscealtra’Michelle Higgins: ‘Place-names and early ecclesiastical settlement in Cork’

20thApril: Early Agriculture and Environmental Archaeology Research GroupSuzanne Smith: ‘Iron Age economy in Ireland in its environmental context’Orla Power: ‘The archaeology and archaeobotany of medieval corn-drying kilns in Ireland’

9th December: Mr Mick Monk Early Agricultural Research Group‘Stories from fragments: reflections on taphonomy and the deposition of non-wood macro-plant remains’

--2009--

13th January, 2009: Viking and Early Medieval Research GroupGil Boazman: ‘Christianity and regional landscapes in early medieval Ireland’Tracy Collins: ‘The place of religious women in the Irish archaeological record’

27th January: Viking and Early Medieval Research GroupBernadette McCarthy: ‘Early ecclesiastical settlement in selected areas of Galway and Mayo’Karen Moffat: ‘The ogham stones of Ireland: a history written in stone’

3rd February: Dr Tomas O CarragainViking and Early Medieval Research Group‘The architectural setting of baptism in early medieval Ireland’

10th February: Prehistoric Transitions Research GroupAlex Manteiga Brea: ‘Atlantic connections in the Bronze Age: Ireland and Spain’Mara Vegby: ‘Megalithic tombs of western Europe: Iron Age perceptions of the past’

10th March: Historic Buildings and Environmental Archaeology Research GroupsJane Hurley: ‘Social archaeology of a demesne landscape in north Cork’Suzanne Smith: ‘Iron Age economy in Ireland in its environmental context’

31st March: Viking and Early Medieval Research GroupMichelle Higgins: ‘What is in a name? Early ecclesiastical settlement in Co. Cork’Marie Therese Barrett: ‘The early medieval church sites of Co. Limerick’Cliodhna O’Leary: ‘The early medieval minor cross sculpture of Iniscealtra’

Tullahedy: a Neolithic enclosure in north Munster. (Tullahedy) Conference, Cork, February 2012.

Tullahedy excavations. NRA Seminar in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, 2011.

Ben Gearey

Head of the river, source of the sea - Iron Age timber alignments in the Waveney valley, east England; and A place at the table? The ecosystem services framework and peatland archaeology: EAA Helsinki 2012

What do I talk about when I talk about time? TAG 2012, Liverpool

Ways of thinking about 'events' and 'processes' in the palaeoenvironmental record: EAA Pilsen 2013

Irish peatlands: from palaeohydrology to palaeoclimatology, or to complexity and confusion? IQUA, March 2014, Cork

From opprobrium to opportunity: Irish peatland archaeology in the 21st Century: ‘In the Bog’ Conference, Sheffield Hallam University, September 2014

Metal supply and social relations in Chalcolithic Ireland. Prehistoric Society conference on British Chalcolithic, Bournemouth. April 2008.

Hillforts and Bronze Age warfare in southern Ireland. Bronze Age Forum, University of Sheffield. November 2008.

Knockatreenane and the prehistoric barrows of Co. Cork. Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland annual conference. November 2009.

Copper axes, stone axes. Mining, production and exchange networks in the Chalcolithic of Atlantic Europe. HIMAT mining history conference, University of Innsbruck, Austria. November 2009.

The introduction of tin bronze to Ireland. CISC conference, Madrid. November 2009.

Celts, Romans and the Indigenous Late Bronze Age/Iron Age of South-west Ireland. Conference ‘Rethinking the Bronze Age and the Arrival of Indo-European in Atlantic Europe’. University of Oxford. July 2010.

Beakers and early copper mining in Atlantic Europe, 2500–2000 BC. Conference on Settlement and Mining Exploration in atlantic Europe, University of Braga, Portugal. December 2010.

The hidden Iron Age of Southern Ireland. Conference on the Iron Age, Dept. of Continuing Education,. University of Oxford. December 2011.

Atlantic metals and interactions in the Chalcolithic and earliest Bronze Age. Europa Conference. The Prehistoric Society, University of Durham. May 2011.

Hillforts, warfare and soceity in Bronze Age Ireland. Europa Conference. The Prehistoric Society, University of Durham. June 2012.

Tomas O Carragain

‘Críchad an Chaoilli and the Early Churches of Fir Máige’ Fir Maige – Fermoy From Gaelic kingdom to Anglo - Norman lordship, Conference 02 May 2014

‘The view from the shore: perceiving island monasteries in early medieval Ireland.’ Lecture sponsored by the University of Zagreb International Research Centre for Late Antiquity and Middle Ages (IRCLAMA), Osor, Croatia. Island Monasticism in Early Medieval Europe Conference, 26 May 2012.

‘Recalling Jerusalem, Recalling Rome: the sacred topographies of major ecclesiastical sites in early medieval Ireland’ Keynote Lecture of the Space and Settlement in the Middle Ages conference, Trinity College Dublin, 27 May 2011.

‘Architecture, Ritual and Reform around the time of Ráith Bressail’ Re-envisioning Raith Bressail, 1111-2011’ UCD Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute and School of Music Symposium, 15 February 2011

‘Civitates and Pastoral Centres in Ireland, 950-1150’ University of Oxford, Buildings for Worship in Britain and Ireland, c.950-1150 Conference, 08 January 2011.

‘New insights on settlement patterns from the Making Christian Landscapes project’, Early Medieval Settlements in North West Europe, AD 4001100, International Conference, University College Dublin, 26‐28, November 2010

‘Insular Monasticism and Royal Patronage in the Glen of Aherlow: Survey and Excavations at Toureen Peakaun’ The Early Church in Ireland in the Light of Recent Excavations, Royal Society of Antiquaries, 12th November 2010.

‘Making Christian Landscapes in Ireland’ University of Wales, Bangor: Early Medieval Wales in Context, Early Medieval Wales Archaeology Research Group, 25th Anniversary Colloquium, The Archaeology of Early Medieval Wales in Context, 25 April, 2009

‘Patterns of Patronage: Pre-Romanesque Churches in the Dioceses of Limerick, Killaloe and Kilfenora’ British Archaeological Association Conference, University of Limerick, 28 June 2008

Dr Barra O Donnabhain

The Development of the Contextual Analysis of Human Remains in Ireland, Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver, March 2008

Contributor to Fryxell Award Forum, Society for American Archaeology, Sacramento, March 2011

About Face: a ‘careless’ burial from Knowth, Ireland, Society for American Archaeology, Memphis, March 2012

Americans Abroad: Providing Meaningful Archaeological and Cultural Experiences in an English-Speaking Destination, Society for American Archaeology, Honolulu, April 2013.

Colin Rynne

The British naval base and victualling yard on Haulbowline Island, Cork Harbour, Ireland, c. 1816-1900. A new archaeological perspective on Ireland’s ‘coloniality’. Crossing paths or sharing paths? Future directions in the study of post -1550 Britain and Ireland. University of Leicester, 5 April 2008.

Water-power and the milling of cereals in Ireland, from the earliest times to industrialisation’, Agricultural History Society annual conference, Wexford, 19 June 2009.

Agriculture and incipient industrialisation in the Cork harbour area, c. 1700-1830', Group for the Study of Irish Historical Settlement All Hallows, Dublin, 31 October 2009.

Richard Boyle as a colonial entrepreneur and the development of plantation-period industrial landscapes in south Munster, c. 1600-1640', Ten year's on, Irish Post-Medieval Archaeology Group Conference, 22 February 2010 Belfast.

The development of industrial archaeology in Ireland, future prospects, ICOMOS, Industrial Heritage and Society, 13 June 2010.

The industrial archaeology of Cork city, c, 1750-1930, Panel for Historic Engineering Works Conference, University College Cork, 25 August 2010.

The archaeology of water power in early medieval Ireland and Britain, Water-power in the classical and medieval worlds, Institute of Archaeology, Oxford 26 February 2011

The industrial archaeology of the south Munster region, Association for Industrial Archaeology Conference, University College Cork, 26 August 2011.

Identity and allegiance in the British naval communities of Cork harbour, c. 1760-1938', Irish Post-Medieval Archaeology Group Conference, Wexford, 3 February 2012.

Some perspectives on likely Romano-British influences on early medieval agriculture in Ireland', Space and Settlement Conference, TCD, 1 June 2012.

Malt and brewing in early medieval Ireland, Agricultural History Society annual conference, Kilkenny, 15 June 2012.

The Irish comparator. Iron Age Britain and Celtic Diasporas. Population continuity, and movements into, out of and around Great Britain, c.800 BC-AD400: an academic workshop, University of Leicester, 15-16 November 2014

The built heritage of Lough Gur. School of Architecture, University of Limerick seminar and field trip for 4th Year students. October 2013.

Ben Gearey

From Site to Landscape: correlating archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records and Workshop: an introduction to landscape and archaeological palynology: QUB, Belfast, Cultivating Societies Conference and Workshop,2009

Down By the River: excavations of prehistoric timber alignments in the Waveney Valley, east England: University of Cambridge, Prehistoric Society, October 2011

Aspects of Peatland Archaeology in Britain and Ireland: University of Central Lancashire, Preston, December 2014

William O’Brien

‘The archaeology of prehistoric Ireland’ A series of lectures sponsored by the Department of Historical Studies (Kristiansen, Kristian), Gothenburg, Sweden, 06-09 April, 2011

Hillfort chronology in Ireland. Talk to Hillfort Atlas Project, Department of Archaeology, University of Edinburgh. June 2013.

Why Roscommon matters: exploring the origins of hilllforts in Ireland. Archaeological Society, National University of Ireland, Galway. March 2014.

Dr Tomas O Carragain

‘Rethinking the Archaeology of the Early Irish Church’ Rethinking the Early Irish Church, Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, Dublin, 05 October, 2013

‘Early Irish monasteries as potential models for Annegray’ Lecture sponsored by National University of Ireland, Galway and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at Luxeuil, Franche-Comté, 08 August 2013

‘Recalling Jerusalem, Recalling Rome: the sacred topographies of major ecclesiastical sites in early medieval Ireland’ The Cambridge Group for Irish Studies, University of Cambridge, 14 May 2013

‘Recalling Jerusalem, Recalling Rome: the sacred topographies of major ecclesiastical sites in early medieval Ireland’ Department of Anthropology and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies sponsored lecture, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, 29 November 2011

‘The archaeology of medieval Ireland’ A series of lectures sponsored by the Department of Historical Studies (Kristiansen, Kristian), Gothenburg, Sweden, 06-09 April, 2011

‘Viking hoards and hoarding: some issues’, Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin, 12th April 2012

Lectures to Professional Bodies and Local/National Societies

Katharina Becker

New perspectives on the Irish Iron Age: the impact of NRA development on our understanding of later prehistory. With Ian Armit, Graeme Swindles. Stories of Ireland’s past. NRA Archaeology Research seminar. 28.8.2014

Down By the River in Beccles BC: Beccles Museum and Waveney Valley Archaeology Group, Suffolk, April 2014

The Archaeology of Hidden Landscapes: Recent work and thought on Hatfield Moors and other Peatlands: Talk to the Isle of Axholme and Hatfield Chase Landscape Partnership, Thorne, east England, October 2014

William O’Brien

Clashanimud hill fort and the prehistory of Cork. Innishannon Historical Society. March 2008.

Clashanimud hill fort and the prehistory of Cork. Cumann Senchas Bandon. March 2008.

‘Patterns of Patronage: Early Medieval Churches and Round Towers in the Limerick Region’ Limerick’s Built Heritage Lecture Series 2011, Limerick County Council, Adare, Co. Limerick, 01 February 2011

‘No Monastery is an Island: The Place of Skellig Michael in the Landscape of Early Medieval Iveragh’ Éigse na Brídeoige Conference, Community Centre, The Glen, Iveragh Peninsula, Co. Kerry, 02 February, 2009

‘Rebuilding the City of Angels: Muirchertach Ua Briain and Glendalough, c.1096-1111’ Cork Historical and Archaeological Society Lecture, April 2009

Landscapes across Europe were transformed, both physically and conceptually, as a result of the conversion to Christianity and the development of ecclesiastical structures during the early medieval period. This interdisciplinary conference will seek to illuminate this process through case studies of particular landscapes. Speakers will consider a range of settlement and ritual/burial sites as well as territorial divisions and routeways in order to explore where and how people chose, or were obliged, to live, worship and be buried and how this changed over time. Some papers will focus on the initial process of conversion while others will also consider changes in the nature of people's relationships with ecclesiastical sites and structures over the course of the period.

The conference forms part of the Making Christian Landscapes Project (funded by the Heritage Council through the INSTAR programme) and is the 2012 annual conference of the Society for Church Archaeology. It is organised by the Archaeology Department, University College Cork, the School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle, and the Society for Church Archaeology.

Thomas Pickles, University of YorkStraenaeshalh (Whitby), its satellite churches and estates

Sam Turner and Chris Fowler, Newcastle UniversityParcels and possession, petrification and permanence: the conversion of social relations through the technologies of Christianity in 7th-century England

Elisabeth Lorans, University of RouenFunerary patterns in towns in France and England between the 4th and the 10th century: a comparative approach

John Henry Clay, University of DurhamFrom conversion to consolidation in eighth-century Hessia

Sæbjørg Walaker Nordeide, University of BergenIntroducing Christianity to a challenging environment: the example of Norway

Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir, University of ReykjavíkThe Early Christian landscapes of Iceland

Questions / Final Discussion

Landscapes of Assembly: The Óenach in Early Medieval Ireland

Archaeology Department, University College Cork, 24-25 March 2012

Chief Organizer: Patrick Gleeson, PhD Candidate (Archaeology)

The early Irish óenach was the most prominent of all assembly practices in early medieval Ireland. Although usually translated in modern terms as ‘fair/market’, the original meaning of Óenach primarily signified a political assembly of a kingdom or territory. It was on these occasions, when the inhabitants of a territory came together, normally in a landscape of poltical, historical and sacro-religious import, that the actual business of various scales of community and kingdom was played out. We know, for instance, that an Óenach was an assembly convened by a king, possibly on royal land (mruig ríg),which held legal and judicial functions, such that, it is at major Óenaige that cáin (laws) were promulgated by early irish provincial kings over their subjects from the 8th century AD onwards. The Óenach represents an institution that is central to understanding the powers of kings in early medieval Ireland, and moroever, how civil society actually worked. This conference will examine the nature and archaeological manifestation of assembly practices in Ireland, alongside the role of the Óenach in early Irish society.

Saturday 24th March 2012

Session One 11:00-1:00 – The Nature of the Early Irish Óenach

Alexandra Bergholm (Department of World Cultures, University of Helsinki) 'Assemblies and funeral games: re-reading the literary evidence'

Kevin Murray (UCC Dept. of Early and Medieval Irish) 'Óenach in the early documentary sources’

To mark the centenary of the establishment of te Department of Archaeology, the public, academic staff and students of UCC were invited to attend a programme of lectures and events on various dates in 2009. The evening talk series were delivered by leading international archaeologists on a range of topics connected to the research interests of the Department. A public conference on the origins of Cork city was held in April, which reviewed research on the Viking and medieval walled town. The Centenary Programme also featured a photographic exhibition on archaeological excavations conducted by UCC over the past century.